The coming Friday will see two major releases in the form of the Balaji and Popcorn Motion Pictures' EMI and Rajshri Production Pvt. Ltd.'s EK VIVAAH... AISA BHI. Both the mentioned movies will have for company the next James Bond venture from Hollywood, QUANTUM OF SOLACE, in its English and dubbed version(s). While Sanjay Dutt's presence in EMI may give it some initial advantage, especially in BombayMaharashtra, the silent winner in the long run is likely to be the Sonu Sood and Eesha Koppiker starrer, EK VIVAAH ... AISA BHI. Backing on some superb publicity, good buzz and not to forget the Rajshri brand name, EVAB is being touted by the trade as the next winner from the premier production house.

Checking out the performances of the two 'Diwali' releases, Rohit Shetty's GOLMAAL RETURNS and Madhur Bhandarkar's FASHION, they went the expected way. The first release, Rohit Shetty's GOLMAAL RETURNS, released (thru Studio 18/Indian Films) at 61 cinemas of Bombay city and suburbs, last Wednesday, increased by another 30 cinemas on Friday, took an earth shattering start. Outside of Bombay, the opening was bumper everywhere, from North to South and East to West. Collections throughout the 5day weekend were good to superb. Trade predicts that given the bumper start it has taken, GR will keep the territorial distributors and the exhibitors happy and smiling, but cautions the worldwide distributor, Indian Films, to hold on to the celebrations, owing to the heavy price it has paid for the film. The second 'Diwali' release, Madhur Bhandarkar's FASHION, released at 60 cinemas of Bombay city and suburbs (by UTV Motion Pictures) last Wednesday, increased by another 25 cinemas on Friday, saw a very good opening in the multiplexes. In other circuits, opening was very good in the big cities. However, collections started dropping markedly on the second and third day. Trade predicts that FASHION has novelty value but lacks in entertainment for the masses. It will do well in the multiplexes of the big cities but not elsewhere. Considering its cost, FASHION would find the going tough, especially because such adult fares don't fetch too much from sale of the satellite rights. As per the initial results the 5day weekend has seen GOLMAAL RETURNS netting an astonishing 31 crores and FASHION collecting 15.90 crores from India. In the Overseas, GOLMAAL RETURNS has grossed a decent $309,836 in the UK while FASHION has been totally rejected with poor grosses of $33,715 from UK and $105,812 from US.

Samir Karnik's mutistarrer HEROES suffered on account of the dull pre'Diwali' phase but picked up again after 'Diwali'. Unfortunately its shows were drastically reduced in the multiplexes after 5days, to accommodate GOLMAAL RETURNS and FASHION and so HEROES had to suffer for no fault of it. The film collected 2 crores from Bombay, 35.10 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2.50 lakhs from Himmatnagar, 14.50 lakhs from Rajkot, 5 lakhs from Jamnagar, 3.25 lakhs from Bhavnagar, 1.50 lakhs from Bhuj, 3 lakhs from Gandhidham, 1.65 lakhs from Adipur, 7.75 lakhs from Pune, 2.75 lakhs from Solapur, 4.15 lakhs from Nasik, 92 lakhs from Delhi City, 11 lakhs from Noida, 10.75 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 5.35 lakhs from Kanpur, 18.50 lakhs from Lucknow, 5.75 lakhs from Agra, 2.75 lakhs from Allahabad, 2.10 lakhs from Meerut, 4.75 lakhs from Aligarh, 14.75 lakhs from Gurgaon, 8.05 lakhs from Faridabad, 1.75 lakhs from Panipat, 11.10 lakhs from Nagpur, 1.50 lakhs from Raipur, 6.15 lakhs from Indore, 1.15 lakhs from Ujjain, 35.15 lakhs from Jaipur, 3.10 lakhs from Bikaner, 25.35 lakhs from Hyderabad, 2.50 lakhs from Aurangabad and 2.30 lakhs from Nanded. During its opening week HEROES netted a fair 12 crores from India. The film can get to safety only if it holds on reasonably in the second week. HEROES was alright in the Overseas especially US, grossing $317,224 from UK and $587,206 from US.

Moving on to Yash Raj Films' expensive animation experiment, ROADSIDE ROMEO, it has done well only in a handful of cities . In its first week ROADSIDE ROMEO obtained 1.20 crores from Bombay, 5.15 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 1.75 lakhs from Rajkot, 4.25 lakhs from Pune, 2.15 lakhs from Nasik, 27.15 lakhs from Delhi City, 5 lakhs from Noida, 3 lakhs from Ghaziabad, 1.75 lakhs from Kanpur, 4.50 lakhs from Lucknow, 7.50 lakhs from Gurgaon, 2.25 lakhs from Faridabad, 13.50 lakhs from Calcutta, 5.50 lakhs from Nagpur, 4.10 lakhs from Indore, 10.35 lakhs from Hyderabad and 2.65 lakhs from Mangalore. Netting around 4 crores from India in its opening week, the Jugal Hansraj directed ROADSIDE ROMEO is a huge failure for YRF who are also the worldwide distributors. What must be a bigger disappointment is the fact that despite the name Walt Disney (not to forget YRF) associated with it, ROADSIDE ROMEO has been totally rejected in the Overseas. Just for records, ROADSIDE ROMEO has grossed a poor $106,718 in the UK and a shockingly low $55,202 from the US.

Composer, singer and actor Himesh Reshammiya's KARZZZZ has crashed even further in its second week. The film collected 10.25 lakhs from Bombay City, 2.05 lakhs from Ahmedabad, 2.60 lakhs from Rajkot, 6 lakhs from Delhi City, 3.35 lakhs from Lucknow, 4.50 lakhs from Agra, 1.10 lakhs from Allahabad, 1.15 lakhs from Bareilly, and 1.50 lakhs from Aurangabad. KARZZZZ added another 1.50 crores, thus netting around 12 crores in two weeks from India. The Satish Kaushik directed KARZZZZ is a huge debacle for its worldwide distributors, Big Pictures, who will incur huge losses.

Our last entry for this week is the Atul Agnihotri directed HELLO. Though the film is breathing its last, it managed to scrape through to safety. Checking out the numbers, HELLO collected 5.75 lakhs from Bombay, 1.10 lakhs from Ahmedabad and 2.35 lakhs from Delhi City. With another 35 lakhs HELLO has netted around 12.10 crores in three weeks from India. The Percept Picture Company venture has ended as a below average fare, mainly due its decent initial weekend and low selling prices.